Wednesday, 10 September 2008

Wordy Wednesday: Don't forget your 11 Dimensional Glasses

Today, as you no doubt know, an experiment has started 150 metres under Switzerland to recreate the conditions around the time of the "Big Bang" (or "Beeng Bank" as Emilia calls it).

As usual the anti-science brigade, who believe that cell-phone masts give out mystical death rays, were predicting (on their mobiles, no doubt) that this experiment would precipitate the End of the World, either because (a) they're going to make another Beeng Bank, and therefore unleash catastrophic forces, or (b) There's a probability that some black holes will be produced. The latter is apparently correct, but scientists tell us they're nothing to worry about. After all, will anyone notice if Switzerland gets sucked into a black hole?

Predicting the End of the World is a thankless task. Either you're wrong, in which case you look pretty stupid, or you're right, but there's no one left to say "I told you so" to.

There was a physics professor on the telly explaining it all. Or rather, mystifying Emilia and her audience. In the space of 5 minutes, he'd progressed from cosmic forces to dark matter, to talking about 11-dimensional space. All of which is way over my head, so if you were expecting a science lesson, you're out of luck.

Anyway, the experiment started at 10.30am in one European timezone or other, and we're still here. Though as winter draws nearer, it's getting harder to tell whether or not we're in a black hole.

I'm glad, except that I can't get out of writing Wordy Wednesday by claiming that a black hole ate my post. Bugger...

65 comments:

Sorry! I was at lunch and couldn’t comment further because people kept talking to me and wanting my undivided attention.

As I’ve said before, I do not want to know when the world is going to end. I usually don’t like surprises but in this case I’ll make an exception.No, now that you’ve become infamous for Wordy Wednesday, you’ve got to follow thru.(:o/

No idea what the Unix jokes are, but I did hear about the science mcdoodle thingy. There was a news post this morning along the lines of "scientific experiment may blow the living shit out of the universe - scientists say not to worry but are hiding in a cupboard just in case."

Funnily enough it didn't end. Or at least if it has, nobody's told me yet.

I'm certainly pleased the world hasn't ended yet! I was going to go for another beer. Well done on the .'s and the /'s. Regrettably, I have no idea what that meant. I am clearly operating in nana mode.

(BTW Bee you're very privileged - few people outside the UK know what a nana is. People went to jail revealing things like that during the Cold War!)

I'm sure you are no more confused than the rest of us. I don't expect that the world would end on a Wednesday, thus making the working week shorter by two days. It's far more likely to end on a Friday, thus depriving us of our weekend...

Okay, yeah, so Brian, I have no idea what you were talking about so I'm just going to kind of ramble here.I for one would certainly not miss Switzerland. I'm sure I've told you all of my geographical knowledge, you know where I once thought the pretty much every U.S. state bordered Canada? Now I do know that every state doesn't border Candada but I haven't figured out which ones do exactly yet, but I'm almost certain that Switzerland is NOT on the border of Canada so I'm good.

You know, I tink I should start a day like some of you all have. You have Wordy Wendesday, Jean Knee has Wordless Wednesday (hey, did you two plan that one?) and Bee has GFYOAFOAT or whatever her's is. I want a day.It can't be Rambling Day because that's pretty much every day.

Lots of people aren't good at geography - that's why we have Google Earth.

There are states in the US that don't have borders with the US. I think. Anyway, I don't think we have to worry about black holes in West Virginia - it's quite a long way from Switzerland. The Swiss make expensive watches, chocolate and cheese. And provide bank accounts for dodgy characters. Rich dodgy characters. If your watch isn't worth at least $200,000 then I think it's safe to say you won't notice if a black hole gets them.

That's a great idea about having your own day. Why not post up a quote or saying? And call it "Tracy's Thought for Thursday", or some such thing?

some heavy rain and wind should be all. maybe no gustnado this time, or if there is one maybe it'll blow the dirt and spider webs off my patio. one time we had sideways rain that cleaned all my windows :)

Geesh, all I do is go to sleep for a few hours and look at all I miss! Spiders, window cleaning rain, incontinence, and new shirts. I've decided to never sleep again. What else do you all have? I'm wide awake here.

I really like your idea Brian. Tracy's thought of the day. Do I have to pay you for the idea.